11/14/11

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back..Into.. Ughh!

After years of practically force-feeding Orangeboy, his appetite has finally made an appearance!  He is eating more and eating faster.  If he keeps it up he might manage to gain some weight!

I don't know if he is suddenly a foodie due to a tweak in his medication or if he is just making a first swing around to prepare for landing in adolescence.  Either way, it's mostly a good thing.  I have experienced very few withdrawal symptoms since I quit mealtime coaching cold turkey.
"Eat!  Chew!  Now swallow!  Eat some more!  You don't have to chew mashed potatoes that much; swallow and eat some more!  Everyone else is long finished and I'm ready to clean up."
"No, you are not full!  You've hardly eaten anything.  EAT!"

I know I'm not supposed to cheer for medication, but I hope this appetite is a long term thing and not a temporary situation - like a little growth spurt.   Don't get me wrong, growth spurts are good, but Orangeboy needs to fill out AND sprout up.  In the past he has just sprouted up and only looked more stretched out.  And I'm not against skinny either.  Even though skinny is way in the minority these days, even among children, I'm all for it.   Antagonist Brother is skinny and us parental figures were both skinny - at one point in our lives.   So it's fine for Orangeboy to be skinny, but he is beyond skinny.  As I've said before, I'm afraid people will look at him and his antagonists and assume that he's the one I keep in the closet and just feed crackers and water. 

However, there was an "incident".  The increased appetite has not meant that Orangeboy is now a good judge of how much he should eat.   A couple of weekends ago we had some people over for a Fall festival of sorts.  We had lots of food laid out and I had a big tray of hotdogs for all the kiddies to enjoy. In the past, I would have had to watch after Orangeboy during any buffet or grazing situation or he wouldn't eat at all.   This time around was very different.   I saw him get a couple of hot dogs (turkey, no nitrates), but I did not see him go back and do the same thing two more times.    Later I found a mysterious little mess on the floor with a throw pillow on top of it.  I assumed that the three year old son of one of my guests had a little spit up accident and just covered it up, so I cleaned it up quickly and didn't say anything.   I learned the truth the next morning when my husband pointed at Orangeboy and asked,  "Did you know he ate SIX hotdogs yesterday?  And then he threw up?" 

Brother had ratted him out.  And that explained the gross mess I had to clean up; which was somehow grosser now that I knew it wasn't a preschooler but a preteen who had done it.   So Orangeboy got the riot act about hiding his "indiscretions" and some instruction on eating "reasonable" quantities; but I also had to praise him for eating at all and not trying to starve himself.

-Just more of the contradictory nature of living with Orangeboy.

2 comments:

  1. It takes my son absolutely forever to finish his meal. His sister, on the other hand, is very easy not fussy. At my son's daycare they often have to make him a 'special' meal. This is usually either plain rice or a cheese or avocado sandwich. I find I really have to cajole and bribe him to try something new. The bribes often work a treat though. Pardon the pun! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting. We have also experienced the increased appetite and the inability to recognise 'full.' There again, we're only up to three hot dogs.

    ReplyDelete

If you get it, please comment! At least LOL.